


The Basement

by radishface



Category: NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Jonghyun gets lost, M/M, bugi come back, it'll be ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 17:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13012194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radishface/pseuds/radishface
Summary: "I know you're not real," Jonghyun says to Minhyun, "so just go away."





	The Basement

 

The path ends abruptly, and so he searches for another way. 

 

Minhyun remembers he has a flashlight, and fishes it out of his back pocket, flicking it on. The tiny beam makes the night seem even darker, more foreboding, and he feels a rumble beneath his feet. He has to be far down; the air is wet here, with the smell and the weight of the ocean. Then he catches the glimpse of a narrow alleyway. Just a space between two buildings folding into each other, and he slips through, heat and darkness more and more oppressive with every step he takes. 

 

The earth is moaning, full of sorrow and unhappiness. Minhyun slides down the narrow aperture, one foot siding the next and he thinks about Jonghyun. He tries to imagine Jonghyun. Maybe he'll be surprised to see him, maybe not. Maybe angry, what took Minhyun so long. Maybe pissed, how did he let this happen. No worries, they still have half a day and Minhyun knows that he's getting close. He's not sure what he'll say when he sees Jonghyun—maybe, _hey, are you new here?_

 

Probably not. He'll leave it to the moment. 

 

The air grows hotter and hotter, like he's walking toward a furnace. His little light bobs against the endless stretch of black in front of him. When he points it down, he sees the shiny wet gleam of running liquid; he's walking in a gutter. It smells like it. The walls are closing in, narrowing, making his shoulders scrape against the brick. 

 

The buildings end, of course. Minhyun pushes himself out through the gap and instinctively looks up, hoping for the sky or the stars, but there's only the lowering red glow of steam reflecting the light of something else. Minhyun looks around, guarding against the frantic bubbling in his heart, sees if he can see the source. There's a window behind him, set very low in the ground. He kneels down and shines his flashlight through it but all he gets is a tinny reflection. He reaches out and pushes at the window—it slips left easily. He lays down in the mud and the shit and slides his legs through it, pushing himself into it with his hands. 

 

There's a fall, and Minhyun is frightened long enough to hope that it won't kick him up, but then his feet hit the ground. He's not sure if he's inside or outside anymore—there are walls all around him but the floor here is dirt. Minhyun shines the light around him and again from the corner of his eye he catches a glimpse of a red glow. Moving cautiously, he turns off his flashlight. It's another corridor and at the end of it, a small, flickering fire. Minhyun feels himself drawn toward it like a moth, like he's always known the path. 

 

He arrives in the clearing to find Jonghyun throwing small twigs into the fire. He sits with his legs folded and his head bowed down, a hand over his eyes. Minhyun sees his eyes through the spaces between his fingers, staring into the fire. Then he sides around the fire and sits down next to Jonghyun.

 

"I know you're not real," Jonghyun says, "so just go away."

 

"I'm real," Minhyun says, and Jonghyun's head twists up sharply. His face is filthy, streaked with dirt and that streaked with sweat, a network of paths written on his face. Minhyun knows how he must feel, for his own clothes are torn and stained and he has a mile of dirt in his shoes and in his lungs. He aches all over, finally weary. 

 

"You're here."

 

"You didn't think I'd come?"

 

"No." Jonghyun tosses another twig in the fire, and Minhyun sees his mouth had curled into a shy smile. "No, I knew that if anybody could find me, it'd be you, Minhyun." 

 

Minhyun nods, smiling to himself, and sighs. "How'd you get here?"

 

“I don’t know,” Jonghyun sighs. “Maybe because I didn’t want to burden anyone.”

 

Minhyun looks back up from the fire at him. “Why do you always think that?”

 

Jonghyun laughs mirthlessly. "Minhyun, am I—are we dead?"

 

Minhyun takes a breath. "No, Jonghyun," he says, absolutely certain. Minhyun closes his hand over Jonghyun's, feeling the shape of his knuckles new against his palm. It makes Minhyun take a breath. "We're fine. Just a long way from home." 

 

"Yeah." Jonghyun stares into the fire. "Long ways."

 

"Uh," Minhyun squints, trying to remember. "Jonghyun, is anybody else here?"

 

"Like who?"

 

"Nobody. Just wondering. But we need to go."

 

"Can we?" Jonghyun looks carefully at Minhyun. "I thought that nobody could leave this place."

 

"Well, we are," he says firmly, and takes Jonghyun's hand again. "Come on. Up you go. It's a long way back. Jonghyun," he adds quickly. “Did you take anything here? Food, or water?”

 

"Nothing."

 

"Nothing anyone here gave you."

 

"No. Why?"

 

"No reason. Just a feeling I have. Promise you won't."

 

"Okay. I guess, if you think it's important."

 

"I do. Now come on, Jonghyun. Start marching."

 

"I'm supposed to lead." He sounds certain.

 

"Not now. Now it's my turn, okay?"

 

Jonghyun smiles at him, exhausted, his teeth gleaming in the firelight, and Minhyun slides his arm around Jonghyun's waist to guide him back up the long incline. But when Jonghyun tries to rise, his legs collapse. "Hey, hey," Minhyun says, easing him back down. "Let's try it again in a minute."

 

"Minhyun."

 

“Jonghyunnie.” His voice is rough with emotion, name slipping from nowhere, and he clears his throat, embarrassed. 

 

"I can't leave."

 

Minhyun studies Jonghyun more carefully. Behind the filth, the relieved smile, the exhaustion, he sees something else. "Why can't you leave?"

 

"I don't know. But I can't."

 

Minhyun taps his fingers against his thigh, and sighs. "Okay. Did someone tell you that? How did you get here?"

 

"I don't know."

 

"Okay. You had to. So you left your apartment. You maybe even left Seoul. How did you leave?”

 

“Stairs,” Jonghyun rubs his knees in memory. “I decided to take the stairs down. And they went on and on. When I got to the bottom, there was a little door, really hot. And I heard a voice that told me to go inside. So I did.”

 

He looks at Minhyun, eyes red and filling with tears. “I remember now,” he says, and pulled two leaves out of his pocket. “I took these.”

 

Minhyun looked at the leaves. “Rosemary.”

 

“They smelled sweet, and reminded me of—I just—just two leaves, Minhyun. I just wanted something that—" Jonghyun wipes his eyes. “Is that why I’m stuck here?”

 

Minhyun pats Jonghyun's shoulder and tried to remember what little herbal lore he knew. Rosemary. Included in funeral wreaths as a symbol of remembrance and in wedding bouquets as a symbol for fidelity. Said that if you touched a lover with a sprig of rosemary, they'll be faithful.

 

He sighs again, and says, I don't know, Jonghyun." And then it occurs to him, haltingly, not the full picture, but important. "We're in this world now, and of course they’ll know." He hears Dongho’s voice in his head and almost smiles, until he remembered that Dongho isn't here. "Jonghyun, everyone is waiting for us. Not just Nu’est members, but all the others who care about you. You have to leave, if only to help me find them."

 

"They're here, too? Everyone's here?"

 

"It's okay, we'll get them back. But I need your help. Come on, Jonghyun. Try. There's nothing keeping you here. I don't see any chains. We’re not bound. It’s just us. Around a campfire. How many times has it just been us? In how many places? This is just one more. Come on, Jonghyun." Minhyun hears a note of pleading enter his voice, but he doesn't care. "Please, Jonghyun. Try. For me." He stands and offers Jonghyun his hands.

 

Jonghyun stares at him, then drops his eyes to study Minhyun's hands. He reaches up to take them, and Minhyun can feel his pulse beating furiously. "Oh, Jonghyun," he says, and kneels again to embrace his friend. "Don't be afraid," he whispers. "Let's just go."

 

"I don't remember how."

 

Minhyun pulls Jonghyun into an even tighter embrace, gently rocking him. The stones beneath his knees cut into his skin, right through the fabric of his jeans, but he hangs on. That's all he's doing. "It's okay. You don't have to remember. You just have to trust me. Let me do all the work, okay?"

 

Jonghyun tries to stand again, leaning heavily against Minhyun, but he can't move his legs. Minhyun even bends over and tries to lift his foot, tugging at it while Jonghyun leans over him, but nothing happens. Nothing. It was as though he's grown roots.

 

Minhyun sits back with another deep sigh. "Sorry," Jonghyun says, looking embarrassed. Minhyun can see that, even under the dirt and sweat, he is blushing. He pats Jonghyun's knee.

 

"So we'll stay a while. I'm tired, anyway. Let's get some rest." Jonghyun nods, looking as miserable as Minhyun can remember. To his pleasure, to his fear, Jonghyun leans against Minhyun again, so the weight of his body rests against Minhyun's shoulder. Minhyun puts his arm around Jonghyun and pulls him back a little. "Just rest," he says again, hoping he sounds soothing and not idiotic. He feels Jonghyun take a deep breath and, when he releases it, feels his muscle tension decrease.

 

The fire burns weakly, illuminating the ground where they sit. The earth around them is cracked, as if by drought, yet muddy water glints in the cracks. The smell of earth and metal is heavy here, and he wondered how far below they are.

 

Without realizing it, he begins to hum. He becomes aware he is singing an old DBSK tune below his breath, almost speaking the words. When Jonghyun relaxes even further, he smiles to himself. “The warm night breezes brushes my cheek,” he whispers in a husky voice, “just like the night I spent with you. I can’t change your dreams on my own, but I want to be with you.“ He forgets the rest of the lyrics, but hums breathlessly, the weight of Jonghyun in his arms as comforting as the song.

 

Just when Minhyun thinks Jonghyun has fallen asleep, he whispers, "My fault."

 

"No, it isn't, Jonghyun."

 

"I didn’t want to be a burden anymore.”

 

Minhyun stills, trying to understand Jonghyun's words. He shifts his position, so he can cross his arms around Jonghyun's chest. "Just sleep."

 

"You understand?"

 

"Yeah."

 

"I didn't mean to worry you.”

 

"It's okay, Jonghyun."

 

“I’m sorry."

 

"Go to sleep. It'll be okay." 

 

Sorry, he thought he heard, but it might have been the hissing of a green twig in the fire. He feels Jonghyun slip into sleep, suddenly heavier against him. "In my life, I love you the most,” he whispers into the gloom.

 

Indefinable hours later, when Jonghyun stirs, Minhyun releases him, not wanting to embarrass him further. "Hey."

 

"Hey." Jonghyun sniffs deeply and rubs his face, still miserable. “Geez.”

 

"Yeah. Listen, I have an idea."

 

"For?"

 

"Getting out of here." At Minhyun's words, Jonghyun blushes again, and drops his eyes. "I'm gonna try something, but you can't laugh at me."

 

"Hell, spoil my fun," Jonghyun says.

 

"Okay, you can laugh later, if it doesn't work. In the meantime, just sit there."

 

"Oh, like I have much of a choice." Minhyun grins at him, and lightly taps his dirty jaw.

 

"I think this is a transitional area." At Jonghyun's blank look, he continues. "Like a, a hotel lobby or an airport."

 

"Lobby."

 

"Or a foyer. A transitional area. A waiting room."

 

"And we're waiting for..."

 

Minhyun bites his lip. "I don't know. Don't want to know, either. But we need to get out."

 

"Minhyun, I've tried." Minhyun just stares at him. "It's true. You act as though I've decided to stay here."

 

Feeling compelled, Minhyun says, "I think you have, Jonghyun." He pauses and then asks, "Jonghyun, what do you think you deserve?" Jonghyun looks away, his face tight and shuttered. "I mean it." He puts his hand out again to Jonghyun's face, this time cupping his hand around Jonghyun's chin and gently turning him toward him. "What do you deserve?"

 

"I left you," Jonghyun says brokenly.

 

Minhyun swallows. "When?"

 

"I did. On stage. I couldn't be with you."

 

"It's okay, Jonghyun."

 

"It isn't. I didn’t try hard enough.”

 

"I promise, Jonghyun, it'll be okay. But you have to come back with me." More firmly, he says, "Or I'll kick your butt all the way back home."

 

Jonghyun's tone is gruff and wet and he says, “I’d like to see you try."

 

After a moment, Minhyun takes the two rosemary leaves from Jonghyun's hands and presses them flat, so they lie together. Then he sets them into the fire. "Watch," he tells Jonghyun. The smell rose, fresh and sweet, a reminder of the wider world, as the leaves crackle and burn. But they stay together and merge in their tiny conflagration, until there are only ashes left.

 

"What's that mean?" Jonghyun whispers.

 

"A loyal relationship."

 

"Ours?" 

 

"I guess." Minhyun laughs. "Nobody else here."

 

He waits for what seemed like a long time. Eventually, the fire trembles and begins to die. He feels his mouth pull into a grimace. Some of the water escape the flames and trickle over the hardened ground toward Jonghyun's booted foot. Minhyun watches it, nearly hypnotized from staring into the flames so intently. It pools around Jonghyun's foot, and then darkens the sole of the shoe. Minhyun discovers he needs to breathe.

 

When he looks up, Jonghyun is watching him intently, his face pained. "Let's go, Jonghyun," he says quietly, and reaches out his hands across the scorched and muddied earth where the fire had been. For a moment, he thinks Jonghyun will refuse, but then he stretches up both his hands to Minhyun, who pulls as hard as he could. Jonghyun rises easily, and steps across the embers.

 

Without another word, they begin the hike back.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. <3


End file.
